Once the door was pushed open, the entire courtyard came into view.
Two-Shaku-Sama floated in midair with a sword in her arms, silently gaping slightly with a complicated, puzzled expression.
Uesugi Tetsu stood motionless, deep in thought.
As for the blacksmith's young apprentice, he knew his own place and what he should and shouldn't see. He went straight to the wall and turned his gaze toward the other houses in the distance.
If there was anything he could see, Mr. Tetsu would say so anyway. Waiting a little longer made no difference.
After receiving important figures at the smithy for several years, the most important lesson the apprentice had learned—apart from memorizing their information—was "discretion."
Discretion, discretion. Every fraction and inch of it mattered.
When dealing with people of high status, one had to know when to move a fraction closer and when to retreat an inch.
As for controlling that distance, the apprentice wouldn't claim to be flawless, but he could at least say he was 108,000 leagues better at it than at his mediocre smithing.
As for what strange and bizarre "scenery" had appeared in this spacious courtyard...
In Uesugi Tetsu's eyes, the tall, sturdy, short-haired woman wearing very little cloth had actually closed her eyes and was unconsciously "swimming" in the middle of the gravel-covered courtyard.
The woman lay brazenly on the gravel without covering herself. Her wheat-colored arms and thighs kept rising and falling, sending showers of stones flying.
As for why he called it swimming...
That was naturally because rhythmic, uninterrupted "splish, splish, splish" sounds came from the woman's mouth, setting a three-three beat for the surging waves.
"Wait, is this the legendary Okabe Motonobu?"
Only after a while did Uesugi Tetsu recover, touching the other person's heartstrings to confirm with Two-Shaku-Sama, who clearly wanted